My comment on this happening is no comment. It speaks for itself, sadly.
(CNN) -- African-American scholar and Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested last week on a charge of disorderly conduct after a confrontation with an officer at his home, according to a Cambridge, Massachusetts, police report.
Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested last week on a charge of disorderly conduct.
According to the report, officers responded to a call Thursday from a woman who said she saw "a man wedging his shoulder into the front door" at Gates' house near the university. The report, obtained by CNN affiliate WCVB-TV, indicates Gates refused to identify himself to a police officer, claiming the officer was a racist.
Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department stated in the report that he told Gates he was investigating a report of a break-in at the residence. According to the report, Gates "opened the front door and exclaimed, 'Why, because I'm a black man in America?' "
Crowley wrote in the report that he warned Gates two times he was becoming disorderly. After Gates continued to yell and accuse him of racial bias, Crowley wrote he arrested Gates for "loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space."
A statement by Gates' lawyer and fellow Harvard professor Charles Ogletree said that the incident occurred when Gates returned to his home after a trip to China.
Gates, accompanied by a driver, found the front door damaged.
He entered the house with his key through the rear door. Then, he and and driver were able to force the front door open, Ogletree said in his statement.
Don't Miss
WCVB: Police report of incident
The statement was published on the Web site The Root, of which Gates is editor-in-chief.
An officer arrived and told Gates he was investigating a call about a breaking-and-entering at the residence, Ogletree wrote.
Gates identified himself at the officer's request, according to Ogletree.
"He [Gates] turned to walk into the kitchen where he had left his wallet. The officer followed him. Professor Gates handed both his Harvard University identification and his valid Massachusetts driver's license to the officer," Ogletree wrote on The Root.
Ogletree's statement also said that Gates asked Crowley for his name and badge number several times without success.
Then, when Gates followed Crowley to the front door, Crowley said, "Thank you for accommodating my earlier request, and then placed him [Gates] under arrest," Ogletree said.
The Cambridge Police Department would not release any information regarding the incident.
Gates has one of 20 prestigious "university professors" positions at Harvard University, according to WCVB, and joined the faculty in 1991. He is considered one of the nation's pre-eminent scholars of African-American studies. In 1997, Time magazine placed him on its list of the 25 most influential Americans.
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All About Harvard University • Cambridge (Massachusetts)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
IT AIN'T OVER YET PEOPLE!
From CNN 7/17/2009
Black Philadelphia police sue over message board, say it's racist
Story Highlights
Cops claim police message board "infested with racist, white supremacist" remarks
Boards reference swim club incident, calls black kids "ghetto monkey faces"
One post describes "no car insurance driving, bad weave wearing" black women
Lawsuit seeks for site to be taken down or have cops stop posting during work
Link to the article
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/17/police.racism.lawsuit/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
By Jason Kessler CNN
(CNN) -- A group of black Philadelphia police officers filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against their department, alleging an online forum geared toward city police is "infested with racist, white supremacist and anti-African-American content."
My comment
When this kind of racism is allowed to continue for even one day it is institutional racism.
Denegration of any and all people is wrong. All racism based in fear and ignorance is wrong. Unless, and until, there is an open dialogue the racial resentment will continue to fester. Talk , talk , talk all you want to but until everyone, white and non-whites, get together and say what they truly feel, face- to- face, the humiliation, denegration, resentment, and racist behavior will never change. It begins with the children of all races and, if the parents are incapable of understanding and communicating how harmful racism is to a society, then the schools should incorporate it into the classroom at the youngest age.
Black Philadelphia police sue over message board, say it's racist
Story Highlights
Cops claim police message board "infested with racist, white supremacist" remarks
Boards reference swim club incident, calls black kids "ghetto monkey faces"
One post describes "no car insurance driving, bad weave wearing" black women
Lawsuit seeks for site to be taken down or have cops stop posting during work
Link to the article
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/17/police.racism.lawsuit/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Link to the actual civil complaint by the Police in Philadelphia
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/17/civil.complaint.pdf
By Jason Kessler CNN
(CNN) -- A group of black Philadelphia police officers filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against their department, alleging an online forum geared toward city police is "infested with racist, white supremacist and anti-African-American content."
My comment
When this kind of racism is allowed to continue for even one day it is institutional racism.
Denegration of any and all people is wrong. All racism based in fear and ignorance is wrong. Unless, and until, there is an open dialogue the racial resentment will continue to fester. Talk , talk , talk all you want to but until everyone, white and non-whites, get together and say what they truly feel, face- to- face, the humiliation, denegration, resentment, and racist behavior will never change. It begins with the children of all races and, if the parents are incapable of understanding and communicating how harmful racism is to a society, then the schools should incorporate it into the classroom at the youngest age.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
REVISITING THE LEGACY OF MASSIVE RESISTANCE
By Larry J. Sabato
Director, U.Va. Center for Politics
The following article is the unedited version of a commentary piece as submitted to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Fifty years have now passed since the dark days of Massive Resistance, when public schools in some Virginia localities were shuttered rather than integrated.
Virginia has had an overall proud and constructive history; yet except for the original sin of slavery, Massive Resistance is the most indelible stain on the state's soul.
When today's young people are told about the school closings, they are astonished. In retrospect, it is almost unbelievable--even for those of us who lived through the era--to accept that public education ceased in order to prevent "the mixing of the races."
But the nightmare was all too real. I was a young boy growing up in Norfolk when my father told me that my cousins were no longer able to attend school. Even as a youngster I had noticed the commotion, as well as the separate water fountains and the "Impeach Earl Warren" billboards. One Sunday, an African-American serviceman came to religious services. As he sat down, every white person in the pew moved. I was five or six years old, but I still vividly recall the anguish and humiliation on the man's face. This happened in a church, and this gentleman was serving our country.
These were the times. Society was sick with the plague of racism. And instead of helping to cure the disease, Virginia made it worse--much worse.
The state's elected leadership refused to accept Brown v. Board of Education, the breakthrough Supreme Court decision in 1954, which held that separate, segregated schools were inherently unequal. Barbara Johns, a brave 16-year old in Prince Edward County, Virginia, had helped to precipitate Brown in 1951 by organizing a strike to protest the disgraceful condition of her all-black high school. The resulting lawsuit was one of five cases the Supreme Court heard under the name Brown v. Board of Education.
Virginia's reaction to Brown was the "Southern Manifesto," championed by U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr., and signed by more than 100 significant officeholders in the South. By 1956 Byrd-led Virginia decided to fight, and the General Assembly passed a state law that cut off funding and closed any school that agreed to integrate.
Sadly, the Richmond newspapers, including The Times-Dispatch, contributed mightily to this disgraceful effort. The papers thundered daily about the evils of integration, and arguably violated journalistic ethics by coordinating directly with Senator Byrd in promoting this extreme measure. By contrast, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot won a Pulitzer Prize for its anti-Massive Resistance editorials.
In September 1958, several schools in Norfolk, Charlottesville, and Warren County were on the verge of integrating because of court orders, but the state seized and shut them, creating the "Lost Class of '59." Some black and white students were tutored privately, but many others never made up the lost ground.
Reason gradually prevailed. Virginia's business leaders, many of them segregationists, nonetheless nudged the state toward integration, fearing the results of an uneducated workforce. This modest progressivism was not without cost. In Norfolk, hard-line segregationist mayor, Fred Duckworth, reportedly kept a list of these "soft" businessmen on his office door, and turned away any who dared to come by.
Finally, the federal and state courts acted, and on January 19, 1959 (ironically, Robert E. Lee's birthday) the school-closing law was overturned. In early February, a handful of black students integrated the schools, though not in Prince Edward County--where the public schools tragically remained locked until 1964.
Soon federal civil rights laws turned outcasts into voters, and Virginia gradually gave up most vestiges of segregation. Blacks won local offices and General Assembly berths, and the state led the nation by choosing the first elected African-American governor, Douglas Wilder, grandson of slaves, in 1989.
By 2008 Virginia voted for Barack Obama by a wide margin--and the first African-American president swept all localities that had closed schools, save for small Warren County.
Some Virginia leaders have also tried to face the legacy of the 1950s head on. In 2004 a much more enlightened General Assembly created a scholarship fund to provide educational opportunities for those damaged by the earlier legislature's actions. This past February, Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim apologized from the heart on behalf of his city to an emotional gathering of Massive Resistance survivors.
Massive Resistance may seem to be ancient history, but it should never be forgotten--a classic case of leadership gone awry and irrational fears shaping public policy. And there are many lessons to be learned and applied to today's politics.
The U.Va. Center for Politics will explore these lessons, collaborating with PBS stations such as WCVE, in a national documentary depicting Massive Resistance through the eyes of the students who experienced it. In September the show will air in Virginia, and then it will debut nationally in February.
On July 17 at the state capitol, the Center for Politics will host a day-long conference on Massive Resistance. Former Governors Wilder and Linwood Holton, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Leroy Hassell, prominent state legislators, civil rights leaders, historians, journalists, and Massive Resistance veterans will be featured. It's free and open to the public, but registration at this Web site is required: www.centerforpolitics.org/programs/govcon/indexMass.html. Come join us. Hear firsthand a heartrending report on the mistakes of the past so that working together we can insure that they never happen again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Larry J. Sabato
Director, U.Va. Center for Politics
The following article is the unedited version of a commentary piece as submitted to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Fifty years have now passed since the dark days of Massive Resistance, when public schools in some Virginia localities were shuttered rather than integrated.
Virginia has had an overall proud and constructive history; yet except for the original sin of slavery, Massive Resistance is the most indelible stain on the state's soul.
When today's young people are told about the school closings, they are astonished. In retrospect, it is almost unbelievable--even for those of us who lived through the era--to accept that public education ceased in order to prevent "the mixing of the races."
But the nightmare was all too real. I was a young boy growing up in Norfolk when my father told me that my cousins were no longer able to attend school. Even as a youngster I had noticed the commotion, as well as the separate water fountains and the "Impeach Earl Warren" billboards. One Sunday, an African-American serviceman came to religious services. As he sat down, every white person in the pew moved. I was five or six years old, but I still vividly recall the anguish and humiliation on the man's face. This happened in a church, and this gentleman was serving our country.
These were the times. Society was sick with the plague of racism. And instead of helping to cure the disease, Virginia made it worse--much worse.
The state's elected leadership refused to accept Brown v. Board of Education, the breakthrough Supreme Court decision in 1954, which held that separate, segregated schools were inherently unequal. Barbara Johns, a brave 16-year old in Prince Edward County, Virginia, had helped to precipitate Brown in 1951 by organizing a strike to protest the disgraceful condition of her all-black high school. The resulting lawsuit was one of five cases the Supreme Court heard under the name Brown v. Board of Education.
Virginia's reaction to Brown was the "Southern Manifesto," championed by U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr., and signed by more than 100 significant officeholders in the South. By 1956 Byrd-led Virginia decided to fight, and the General Assembly passed a state law that cut off funding and closed any school that agreed to integrate.
Sadly, the Richmond newspapers, including The Times-Dispatch, contributed mightily to this disgraceful effort. The papers thundered daily about the evils of integration, and arguably violated journalistic ethics by coordinating directly with Senator Byrd in promoting this extreme measure. By contrast, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot won a Pulitzer Prize for its anti-Massive Resistance editorials.
In September 1958, several schools in Norfolk, Charlottesville, and Warren County were on the verge of integrating because of court orders, but the state seized and shut them, creating the "Lost Class of '59." Some black and white students were tutored privately, but many others never made up the lost ground.
Reason gradually prevailed. Virginia's business leaders, many of them segregationists, nonetheless nudged the state toward integration, fearing the results of an uneducated workforce. This modest progressivism was not without cost. In Norfolk, hard-line segregationist mayor, Fred Duckworth, reportedly kept a list of these "soft" businessmen on his office door, and turned away any who dared to come by.
Finally, the federal and state courts acted, and on January 19, 1959 (ironically, Robert E. Lee's birthday) the school-closing law was overturned. In early February, a handful of black students integrated the schools, though not in Prince Edward County--where the public schools tragically remained locked until 1964.
Soon federal civil rights laws turned outcasts into voters, and Virginia gradually gave up most vestiges of segregation. Blacks won local offices and General Assembly berths, and the state led the nation by choosing the first elected African-American governor, Douglas Wilder, grandson of slaves, in 1989.
By 2008 Virginia voted for Barack Obama by a wide margin--and the first African-American president swept all localities that had closed schools, save for small Warren County.
Some Virginia leaders have also tried to face the legacy of the 1950s head on. In 2004 a much more enlightened General Assembly created a scholarship fund to provide educational opportunities for those damaged by the earlier legislature's actions. This past February, Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim apologized from the heart on behalf of his city to an emotional gathering of Massive Resistance survivors.
Massive Resistance may seem to be ancient history, but it should never be forgotten--a classic case of leadership gone awry and irrational fears shaping public policy. And there are many lessons to be learned and applied to today's politics.
The U.Va. Center for Politics will explore these lessons, collaborating with PBS stations such as WCVE, in a national documentary depicting Massive Resistance through the eyes of the students who experienced it. In September the show will air in Virginia, and then it will debut nationally in February.
On July 17 at the state capitol, the Center for Politics will host a day-long conference on Massive Resistance. Former Governors Wilder and Linwood Holton, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Leroy Hassell, prominent state legislators, civil rights leaders, historians, journalists, and Massive Resistance veterans will be featured. It's free and open to the public, but registration at this Web site is required: www.centerforpolitics.org/programs/govcon/indexMass.html. Come join us. Hear firsthand a heartrending report on the mistakes of the past so that working together we can insure that they never happen again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, July 10, 2009
CLUB POOL INCIDENT IN PENNSYLVANIA IS NOT RARE
The press does not get it about racism, the public does not get it about racism, whites don't get it about racism and blacks, as well as 'other minorities', don't get it about racism.What everyone is missing is that the racism born of extreme hatred is just buried beneath political correctness and given the slightest opportunity it will resurface when we least expect it in some gruesome way. Everyone will express their surprise at the extent to which it still exists, the outrage and the ballyhoo will subside and on and on. We, as a country and a society need to raise the discussion to the level it demands.
Eric Holder gets it . We are cowards and , for the most part, unwilling to have constructive dialog. It is as if racism is some nebulous concept, separate and apart, from our daily lives. As far as racist whites are concerned 'niggas' could be anybody who is non-white and are considered subhuman, dirty and dangerous. This notion is inculcated in racist families when children are the most impressionable and , once the racist attitude is planted, it is as hard to eradicate as a ground running noxious weed from the child's consciousness. The racist seed is borne of ignorance and fear. I should know, I was raised in a racist family.
After the pool incident in Pennsylvania, where the white kids got out of the pool when the black and Latino kids got in there was a great ballyhoo about the incident being racist. Well , I'll just be hornswaggled, who da thunk it?
After Obama was elected, according to the press, it seems that all was love and harmony between whites and 'other races' and that racial barriers had been transcended. This in spite of the fact that, at the same time, racist incidents were happening around the country. The true racial hatred cannot be fully measured until the meaning of the word 'nigger' is examined. Out here in the real world some things are getting worse, not better, regarding the attitudes toward 'minorities', who by the way, are fast becoming the majority. For all of the white kids, who got out of the club pool in Pennsylvania when the 'other kids,' got in, the concept of racism is indelibly etched into their perception of 'the other.' Those kids, in all likelihood cannot be wrested away from their racist thinking inculcated by the ignorant adults who are responsible for training them to survive in the world to come. That world will be comprised of a mixture of ethnic individuals who will eventually become one color and one culture.
I have taken a lot of heat from racist individuals with whom I am acquainted. I have been told the name of Obama is not allowed in some households. I have some lifelong friends, and sadly also relatives, who sent anti-Obama emails before, after and during the election. They were surprised when I told them that I deleted the emails, did not ever want to see them again, and that I felt Obama was the best thing that could have happened to our country in a very long time. I did not understand, until the 2008 election, how some of my friends felt and, because I proudly voted for Obama, our relationship as friends will never be the same.
The 'children of color,' were victims of racism, but so were the children whose parents yanked them out of the pool when the camp kids got in. This is a terrible lesson perpetuating an anachronistic, generational attitude of racism which will deprive them of the blessing of diversity and expanded cultural richness. It will also perpetuate, in the minds of the camp children, that they are regarded as inferior, dangerous and that they do not belong. How could the camp kids possibly understand such unjustified treatment? They did nothing wrong, but this one heinous incident planted the seed of resentment in their young minds and the cycle of racism and resentment continues while we do nothing but talk it to death. There needs to be an established forum of individuals from many races to address the opportunities for growth and prosperity through education, trust building and diversity on a national level. Our national security depends on it and our economic survival as a country is contingent upon eliminating institutional racism and injustice. The pool incident is one more truth exposed.
Eric Holder gets it . We are cowards and , for the most part, unwilling to have constructive dialog. It is as if racism is some nebulous concept, separate and apart, from our daily lives. As far as racist whites are concerned 'niggas' could be anybody who is non-white and are considered subhuman, dirty and dangerous. This notion is inculcated in racist families when children are the most impressionable and , once the racist attitude is planted, it is as hard to eradicate as a ground running noxious weed from the child's consciousness. The racist seed is borne of ignorance and fear. I should know, I was raised in a racist family.
After the pool incident in Pennsylvania, where the white kids got out of the pool when the black and Latino kids got in there was a great ballyhoo about the incident being racist. Well , I'll just be hornswaggled, who da thunk it?
After Obama was elected, according to the press, it seems that all was love and harmony between whites and 'other races' and that racial barriers had been transcended. This in spite of the fact that, at the same time, racist incidents were happening around the country. The true racial hatred cannot be fully measured until the meaning of the word 'nigger' is examined. Out here in the real world some things are getting worse, not better, regarding the attitudes toward 'minorities', who by the way, are fast becoming the majority. For all of the white kids, who got out of the club pool in Pennsylvania when the 'other kids,' got in, the concept of racism is indelibly etched into their perception of 'the other.' Those kids, in all likelihood cannot be wrested away from their racist thinking inculcated by the ignorant adults who are responsible for training them to survive in the world to come. That world will be comprised of a mixture of ethnic individuals who will eventually become one color and one culture.
I have taken a lot of heat from racist individuals with whom I am acquainted. I have been told the name of Obama is not allowed in some households. I have some lifelong friends, and sadly also relatives, who sent anti-Obama emails before, after and during the election. They were surprised when I told them that I deleted the emails, did not ever want to see them again, and that I felt Obama was the best thing that could have happened to our country in a very long time. I did not understand, until the 2008 election, how some of my friends felt and, because I proudly voted for Obama, our relationship as friends will never be the same.
The 'children of color,' were victims of racism, but so were the children whose parents yanked them out of the pool when the camp kids got in. This is a terrible lesson perpetuating an anachronistic, generational attitude of racism which will deprive them of the blessing of diversity and expanded cultural richness. It will also perpetuate, in the minds of the camp children, that they are regarded as inferior, dangerous and that they do not belong. How could the camp kids possibly understand such unjustified treatment? They did nothing wrong, but this one heinous incident planted the seed of resentment in their young minds and the cycle of racism and resentment continues while we do nothing but talk it to death. There needs to be an established forum of individuals from many races to address the opportunities for growth and prosperity through education, trust building and diversity on a national level. Our national security depends on it and our economic survival as a country is contingent upon eliminating institutional racism and injustice. The pool incident is one more truth exposed.
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